Every year we hear Feng Shui experts talking about Tai Sui or Grand Duke Jupiter, Wu Wang/Five Yellow Star (also called Five Yellow Killing Star or Five Killing Star) and San Sha or 3 Killings, but very few really understand what are these.

You’ll hear people say you should be careful and make sure that you don’t offend the Tai Sui or the Grand Duke Jupiter; the 3 Killings is in your corner this year therefore you need to be careful and protect yourself; this is really going to be a bad year for you before you have the Five Yellow.

Basically, you know that you have to be careful, you know that you have to wear some kind of charm but what does these 3 really mean?

FIRST, THE TAI SUI.

Tai Sui or Grand Duke Jupiter has nothing to do with the planet Jupiter.

In the Chinese zodiac, there are sixty heavenly generals who assist the Jade Emperor in taking charge of the well-being of the Mortal World. Each of them takes turn to be in charge for a year. Due to most of them having a military background, they are normally known as the Military Generals, or as the Cycle Gods. Each of their features and weapons signifies the well-being of that year. For example, if the Tai Sui of the year is one who holds a pen, it signifies political unrest for that particular year. On the other hand, if the Tai Sui of the year holds a spear or sword it signifies the need to work hard and excel for that year.

In Taoism, those whose Chinese Zodiac is offended, or by their sign conflict or clashes with the Tai Sui of the year are advised to go through a prayer session with a Taoist Priest to ask for blessing in obtaining Peace and Good Fortune throughout the year. Talismans that are designed to protect us from Tai Sui are also specially designed every year to help us appease the Tai Sui. I personally design a Tai Sui Protection Charm, however, the Pi Yao is also a very good Tai Sui Charm.

Pi Yao, a Celestial Animal, is a Good Tai Sui Charm.

For those whose animal sign are in direct conflict with the Tai Sui, wear a Pi Yao pendant. Choose one that's really nice. My personal favorite is the one that's made of jade. However, the metal and other semi-precious stones are good as well. But don't ever get something that's made of plastic.

A Pi Yao bracelet enhanced with semi-precious stones will work as well. However, I personally prefer the pendant.

Personally I don't like the Piyao that's shown in the picture. This is what I term as a 'Lazy Piyao' . A Piyao should be defending us from Tai Sui by appeasing it how can a 'lazy' thing appease a god.

In Feng Shui, the area of the house corresponding with the position of that year’s Tai Sui is to be left undisturbed or misfortune will befall the residence.

The 2010 Tai Sui God is General Wu Huan.

SECOND, THE WU WANG OR FIVE YELLOW STAR.
Wu Wang or the Five Yellow Star or the Five Yellow Killing Star is one of the most dreaded flying star. It is said that it affects all the five elements luck of the sign that is affected by the Wu Wang. You’ll never know where the Wu Wang will really strike you. It can be illness, accident, wealth loss, or it can be just about any kind of bad luck.

One of the most effective cure of the Wu Wang or 5 Yellow Star is the Five Element Pagoda. Thus if you’re also affected by the Five Yellow it will be nice to wear the Five Element Pagoda Pendant, or always carry the Five Element Pagoda key chain. Personally I like the pendant better than the key chain.

Five Element Pagoda. One should put an 'earth'/soil from the garden of your residence, inside the Five Element Pagoda and place it at the sector affected by the Wu Wang.

This is Lillian Too's '5 Element Pagoda' Necklace. It can be a little pricey though. At the time of this writing its price at above US$450.00. After much thought I designed my own 'Five Element Pagoda' Pendant which is very similar to this one but priced much less. I was able to get it down by putting less gold but it works as well.

THIRD, THE SAN SHA OR THREE KILLINGS STAR.
Probably the reason behind the name is because three earthly branches are involved. In bazi twelve animals have a triplicity formation called the frames, grouping three earthly branches to represent a particular element. The frames constitute of one cardinal sign, one mutable or traveling (as called by the Chinese) sign and one fixed or earth sign, The Chinese astrological triplicity/frames are as follows – Monkey, Rat and Dragon form the water frame; Pig, Rabbit and Goat form the wood frame; Tiger, Horse and Dog forms the fire frame and finally Snake, Rooster and Ox form the metal frame.

The triplicity frame denotes the year, opposite to the frames cardinal direction lies the San Sha location for eg. in the year of the Monkey(Shen), Rat (Cardinal direction North) or Dragon (Chen), the San Sha’s location is Horse (Wu). San Sha is always located in the cardinal directions. Now, Horse belongs to the summer season whereby we take into account Snake and Goat. For making it simple in the year of the Monkey, Rat or Dragon we say that San Sha is in South.

Disturbing the San Sha can cause betrayal, robbery, and loss of money, injuries, illnesses and fatalities. The degree of ill effect however varies ranging from a small amount of money loss to bankruptcy or a common flu to major illness.

Avoid digging, construction, any form of earth works in the San Sha area for that particular year. If it is absolutely essential to do renovation and repair works then it is advisable to consult the Chinese Almanac (Tong Shu) or Feng Shui Consultant like me for appropriate date selection.

The ancient texts do mention that it is acceptable to have your house facing San Sha but it is quite detrimental to sit (house behind) on San Sha. This is said probably because one of the names of San Sha is Robbery Sha and robbers do have a tendency to attack from behind then the front of the property.

One of the most effective way to counter the ill effects of the San Sha is to put the Three Celestial Guardians facing the direction of the San Sha. If the 3 Killings is in the corner of your animal sign, the best way to confront this is to wear the 3 Celestial Guardians pendant or charm, or you can the 3 Gods pendant or charm namely Fuk Luk Sau.

The Three Celestial Guardians are very powerful tool to porotect us the San Sha or 3 Killings.

Fuk Luk Sau are not worshipped but they are very powerful charms also that can defend us from the ill effects of San Sha or Three Killings.